Thursday, September 24, 2009

Google for Educators

Even if you are using an LMS for your online classes, Google offers a variety of tools and information for teaching. There is an entire section devoted to educators at: www.google.com/educators

An easy way to add a little mulitmedia to a coursepage, is to add a quick link to a Google map. If you are reading a case on South Africa, a quick link to the South African map on Google, will connect students with videos, photos and webcams of the area.

Google also is great for blogs. You could create a blog on the topics in your course, and have student teams manage the blog throughout the term, adding in their insights, personal experiences, information from your course and outside resources. For instance, if you are teaching business in South America, you could assign blogs for the various countries, or choose a specific country, and assign blogs for government, culture, art, society, economy, weather, etc.

Finally, if you don't want to create your own blog, consider having students research and evaluate other people's blogs. Many of our business journals and websites, also have their writers working on weekly blogs with interesting and up-to-date news. Try Financial Times or the HBS Working Knowledge on Globalization blogs.

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